Spanish Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Spanish language. It's 100% free, no registration required.

4 Answers
4

I would say camarada is mostly used when referring to someone that shares your own political party or political view, in general (Wikipedia has a good explanation as to how and when it became popular). It shouldn't have a bad connotation but unfortunately in Latin America is mostly used by the far left, the far right and the terrorists in between:

Yes. In France, we say camarade a lot. Of course, camarade is the established name between communists, and between socialists too. Jean Ferrat has even made a beautiful song of it. But the word camarade is also often used without political meaning. It is used to mean friend, buddy. It is also used particularly at school. Camarade de classe = classmate.

I have provided a clear answer, comrade=camarada and is more typical as mate rather than friend, that would be colloquial language but not a formal definition. Furthermore, I remarked, I coincide with Nico.
–
Gödel77Jul 28 '14 at 18:59